Offshore law firm Ogier, advising on the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey law and providing fiduciary services, announced that it is opening a boutique practice in Luxembourg. By this, Ogier becomes the first offshore law firm with an onshore presence in this country.
Chief executive officer of the Ogier group Nick Kershaw said: “The new office is being driven by client demand, as many of our existing clients currently use or have expressed an interest in using Luxembourg, either standalone or as part of an offshore structure. Having a Luxembourg legal capability will therefore complement our existing suite of services.”
The Luxembourg office will be led by Francois Pfister, supported by Ogier Jersey partner Daniel Richards.
In addition to the new legal outpost, later this year Ogier plans to establish a corporate and fund administration busuiness in Luxembourg. Las
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Today’s post answers a couple of recent reader e-mails. The first question concerns the mortgage modification aspect of the government’s Making Home Affordable program.
“I applied for MHA and was turned down. Our mortgage is 51 percent of our income but we’ve never been late. Their answer was to sell my home. If I can scrape by and make payments, don’t I of all people deserve some relief?”
The reader didn’t provide further specifics than what you see above, so I will address not to this one individual but for the multitudes of others in a similar situation. On the surface, many appear eligible when there could be an underlying reason they are not.
There is a progression that lenders must follow under the Home Affordable Modification Plan, or HAMP. This “waterfall” process is designed to reduce mortgage payments to 31 percent of household income.
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Posted by: Brodie Jerrems in
Bank Rates on January 15th, 2012
BBVA has entered into the largest global agreement to date to adopt “Google Apps for Business”.
By the year end, the Spanish bank’s 110,000 employees across 26 countries should be using Google’s cloud-based apps for internal communications.
Initially, 35,000 workers in Spain will use the apps suite including: Gmail with Google Chat, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Groups, Google Sites and Google Video.
The bank’s global intranet is the main technology project that will be transformed, evolving from a corporate communications and process management site to a place where employees will be able to share, contribute and manage knowledge globally.
A
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It’s not uncommon for us to get calls from companies that need business financing but have been declined by banks. Many of this prospects consider their experience of trying to get bank financing to be a sour experience. “They don’t understand me. They have no idea how quickly my business can grow!” they complain. I am going to play devils advocate for a second and say that actually, many people don’t know how banks lend. And if they understood how banks operated, most of these prospects wouldn’t have even bothered approaching a bank for business financing. Maybe it’s the bank’s fault for not making it clear…. perhaps.
Let’s start by looking at the typical factoring prospect. Many prospects have less than three years of operations, though some have more. A number of them have no hard assets such real estate or equipment either for the company or personally the owners. And Read more…
Posted by: Brodie Jerrems in
Bank Rates on January 7th, 2012
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Earlier this week I wrote about the new Air Miles expiry rules, and I mentioned that I came to learn of this news through an article I read on Rewards Cards Canada. That being said, while reading the article I also came to learn about another new initiative Air Miles was launching, which is called Air Miles Cash.
After a bit of research, I came to learn that Air Miles Cash is an upcoming feature to Air Miles clients in March 2012.
Air Miles Cash is a new program feature that will allow you to redeem reward miles instantly at checkout, which can be used at participating sponsors.
As I just mentioned, Air Miles Cash is a feature that will let you redeem Air Miles Cash balance towards purchases at participating sponsors.
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Florida Commerce Credit Union encourages its members to take advantage of their high yield savings account called iSave Savings. This money in the bank deal is designed for customers who want to save for their future needs like emergency fund, retirement, or future goals. The credit union has the following current savings account rate:
- $1,000 2.53% APY
- $1,001 to $24,999.99 0.05% APY
A dividend rate of 2.53% APY can be earned on the first $1,000 deposit. Earn an interest rate of 0.05% APY on the portion of your deposit above $1,000 and for the succeeding months as well. You will also be required to make at least one automatic transfer into your account monthly. The interest rat
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In my first post on mergers, we explored the types of transactions you might consider and the good and bad reasons to consider a business combination. In this blog, we’ll discuss how to get started in your pursuit of a merger or acquisition partner.
First, your leadership team must agree on the benefits you’re seeking from the combination (see my last post for a potential benefits list). Ideally, these will be the specific objectives you most want to accomplish from the merger or acquisition or what will be different or better (and how) once the combination is complete.
Then, you’ll develop agreed-upon qualifying criteria to identify your list of potential integration partners. Initial criteria to define include your potential suitors’ ideal or desired:
• Size – in revenues, employees, locations, and market reach. If you’ve decided to merge your firm upstream, you’ll be looking for a suitor larger than you. A merger of equals and acquisitions of smaller practices or individual books of business dictate the appropriate size considerations, too.
• Location(s) – what area do you want or need their main location (or corporate headquarters) to be? What other locations are you seeking (if applicable)? Define the geographic profile that you feel will mesh with your firm’s growth plan and reasons for undertaking a transaction.
• Leadership and ownership structure – what type of leadership or ownership structure do you feel will best meet your intention for merging? For instance, if your firm is seeking a merger as a succession strategy for an aging owner group, you’ll want to seek merger candidates with younger owners and leaders. If your firm is seeking a smaller, simpler acquisition, you’ll want to seek firms with a smaller number of partners or shareholders.
• Product/service mix – if you’re looking to acquire talent to start up a particular niche or service area, then that will dictate the product/service mix that potential partners must offer to make your target list. If your strategy is to add more capacity to your current service areas, you’ll want to identify firms whose services virtually mirror your own.
Then, assign a team member to use your initial criteria to conduct research and identify firms in your chosen geography and of the size, leadership and ownership structure and offering the product/service mix that fit your criteria. You can find these firms by:
• Conducting web-based research using key words from your initial criteria and then carefully reading web pages, LinkedIn profiles, and other web references to find firms that meet your requirements.
• Letting your trusted referral partners, fellow alliance members, association contacts, consultants, and other key service providers or vendors know of your firm’s intentions and the details of your target profile so that that they can suggest or refer candidates to you.
• Looking at competitors you’ve respected in the past that you feel may meet your initial criteria.
• Using firm lists produced by accounting trade publications or the state society in your target geography to identify potential firms.
These sources will help you develop a first round list of potentials. Ideally, you’ll gather information about each potential partner by reading their web site, social media sites, filings, association affiliations, and press releases. Organize this data into a grid where the prospective suitors are placed as columns and the data you garner about each from your research populates the rows – with a row for each of your qualifying criteria and other rows for other pertinent information you may discover in your first-round research (like their mission statement, values, names and number of partners, niches, and more).
Once you have your “potential targets” matrix populated, gather your firm’s M&A team (which may be a small group) to review and discuss each firm. This process is likely to shed additional anecdotal information on the candidates and may cause you to eliminate or add some based on reputation or other feedback you receive.
During this meeting, you should agree on who from your firm will serve as the point person to reach out to the remaining potential targets to explore their interest in integrating with your firm. This should typically be a high level contact on your side (CEO, Managing Partner, or practice leader) reaching to a senior decision maker on their side to meet for a meal and talk about growth strategies and their interest in a potential combination of the type your firm is envisioning.
With luck, these outreach activities will generate a few interested potentials to begin deeper discussions in earnest. In my next blog, we’ll discuss qualifying criteria to evaluate as you pursue a serious M&A candidate. In the meantime, if you have any ideas about identifying a list of M&A pursuit potentials or any other thoughts on the subject of merging, please share them with us. We’re interested!
The iTunes gets more mobile banking apps every day. Apps from U.S. Banks and global banks. Apps for iPhones and iPads. The latest: A new mobile banking app released from Citi for iPad owners. F
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As 2011 turns to 2012, active traders at Schwab, TD Ameritrade and thinkorswim have been given a little added holiday cheer.
Launched last February, Charles Schwab’s () active-trading platform, StreetSmart Edge, was updated in mid-December. Kelli Keough, Schwab’s vice president of active trading, claims this upgrade is the most significant in satisfying client requests and enhancing workflow. New are screening tools, momentum monitors, updated charting tools and the ability to link an optionsXpress account into StreetSmart Edge. The downloadable application, featuring streaming charts, news and account data, is available to clients who trade more than 36 times in a 12-month period.
When viewing a price chart for a stock in StreetSmart Edge, you can see small tiles where you have an open position or open order.
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